Archive for April, 2007

Well, here it is…the awaited music video for the ukulele strapped horn pressing crooning lad Zach Condon and his Parisian Balkan brass wielding entourage Beirut. Directed by Alma Harel, “Elephant Gun” from Lon Gisland takes us on a swirling masquerade with elephant masks and choreographed dance and all. With Zach wielding a powerful mustache along with the confetti and dancing freaks, this is a pretty nice video. It’ll definitely help Beirut further launch itself into the legions of followers already around the world.

Well, here it is…the awaited music video for the ukulele strapped horn pressing crooning lad Zach Condon and his Parisian Balkan brass wielding entourage Beirut. Directed by Alma Harel, “Elephant Gun” from Lon Gisland takes us on a swirling masquerade with elephant masks and choreographed dance and all. With Zach wielding a powerful mustache along with the confetti and dancing freaks, this is a pretty nice video. It’ll definitely help Beirut further launch itself into the legions of followers already around the world.

This Cleveland pop group seem to be on the trails of following suit to becoming one of the many successful groups without the need of uber money record labels to break them into the ears of many. With hard work and solid writing skills, this pop group has released another solid album after their debut.

An EP with seven songs, Shortest Day Of The Year is more than enough to continue and satisfy ears. Bears seem to have gone a little further with their song writing this time. The songs on Shortest Day of The Year seem to be a lot more retrospective as well as a lot more fluid and layered in instrumentation. Opener “Those Years” brings Craig’s and Charlie’s vocals together in harmonious solidarity ala The Beach Boys. The short and sweet “Losing My Love” with the lyrics opening “You’ll Always Be With Me” and then ending with a chorus that goes “Losing My Love / I’m Losing My Love” this song that rounds off at 1:07 in all of its beauty is a testament that Bears may have found a deeper subject to lullaby to. “My Pain” the album ender, ends the album just as it begun, solemn and blue underneath the aching piano.

If the Bears’ 2nd album is anything like this EP but even better, I can see them garnering many more fans in the not so distant future.

I remember hearing this band a few months ago on MYSPACE.com and hearing their song “Living So Well.” I was hinted out by a fellow writer to their MYSPACE and was told that they just might be up my ally. But as usual my optimism was never really too high. But to my surprise the pillow muffled vocals and the jangly guitars caught me. Reminded by a few acts I listened to growing up such as The Zombies, The Beach Boys, The Turtles, The Byrds and a slew of other “The” pop groups, The Crayon Fields fit perfectly right in.

The rest of the album follows suit. With “bum bum bops” and “wooo ahhhs” followed by more sun shiny good morning tunes that seem to have been resurrected from the psychedelic 60’s of California and the isles of Britain, The Crayon Fields’s album Animal Bells is full of nostalgic tunes you’d expect from a record you play after blowing off the dust that built after decades of hiding in your grandfather’s basement.

From the simple chorus duets of “Lovely Time,” hand claps in “Impossible Things,” chimes in “Do It First,” The Crayon Fields simply perform and create pop music that their contemporaries sort of miss out on when recording their versions of wall of sound pop. So incessantly nostalgic are the songs that The Crayon Fields create that a song like “Back, Front, Side, Low, High” would easily be mistaken for something heard around the fireplace while the cold winter snowed during the 60s in a suburbia somewhere.

It’s curious that there was never an Australian invasion. Having already toured with the likes of The Unicorns, Jens Lekman, Electrelane, Deerhoof, Calvin Johnson, Kelly Stoltz and Architecture in Helsinki and just to name some, The Crayon Fields have their eyes set on landing on US shores to bring their brand of pop to entice the masses.

The Swedish collective (of 29) who invoke hailing from Barcelona procures the same whimsical pop of collective rival The Polyphonic Spree do. The only thing that make differentiate the two collectives may be the subtle charm the Swedes always seem to bring along in their sense of pop music.

Emanuel Lundgren rings this group together to prance around and sing “la la las” and “na na nas” and “ba ba bas” along with an abundance of hand claps in some of the most innocent sounding music. There’s more than enough pep in songs such as “Over Sleeping” “Collection Of Stamps” and “This Boy” to get little toddlers to run around and make those baby smiles that make you go “awww.” But that’s not to say that everything is sugar and spice and everything nice.

Though I wouldn’t call the rest of the album songs that just seem like filler, but a lot of the other songs just don’t seem to carry the same charm. At times they can even become quite tedious. Songs such as “Chicken Pox” and “Ola Kala” seem to linger with Emanuel Lundgren’s vocals becoming coarse and tiresome. Album ender “The Saddest Lullaby” runs off into Dylanesque rant and becomes boring. Songs like these on I’M FROM BARCELONA’s Let Me Introduce You To My Friends at times completely defeats the purpose of their sugar coated persona.

In the end I’M FROM BARCELONA may have a few tunes to cheer up the crowd, as a whole…the whole collective doesn’t really bring the kind of energy that they can with a whopping 29 members.

The Swedish collective (of 29) who invoke hailing from Barcelona procures the same whimsical pop of collective rival The Polyphonic Spree do. The only thing that make differentiate the two collectives may be the subtle charm the Swedes always seem to bring along in their sense of pop music.

Emanuel Lundgren rings this group together to prance around and sing “la la las” and “na na nas” and “ba ba bas” along with an abundance of hand claps in some of the most innocent sounding music. There’s more than enough pep in songs such as “Over Sleeping” “Collection Of Stamps” and “This Boy” to get little toddlers to run around and make those baby smiles that make you go “awww.” But that’s not to say that everything is sugar and spice and everything nice.

Though I wouldn’t call the rest of the album songs that just seem like filler, but a lot of the other songs just don’t seem to carry the same charm. At times they can even become quite tedious. Songs such as “Chicken Pox” and “Ola Kala” seem to linger with Emanuel Lundgren’s vocals becoming coarse and tiresome. Album ender “The Saddest Lullaby” runs off into Dylanesque rant and becomes boring. Songs like these on I’M FROM BARCELONA’s Let Me Introduce You To My Friends at times completely defeats the purpose of their sugar coated persona.

In the end I’M FROM BARCELONA may have a few tunes to cheer up the crowd, as a whole…the whole collective doesn’t really bring the kind of energy that they can with a whopping 29 members.

About

Twentyseven Views is primarily a music blog (although sometimes I will do the random post on a film or something culture or art related). All posts are genuine and honest opinions by the writer.

The writer is based in New York and has run a small indie record label, was a former publicist and has done freelance publicity. The writer has penchant taste in music that lean towards pop. Whether that be indie pop, dance music or hip-hop.

MP3s are used to help promote the artists and musicians. Please buy their art!

If you have any questions regarding any posts please feel free to contact the writer.